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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

My Old Dog

April 12, 2011Slice of Life Tuesday

“Poetry is a mirror, which makes beautiful that which is distorted.”Percy Shelley

We don’t have pets anymore and I miss having one.As I wrote in an earlier post, sometimes we have grand-dogs visit, but while it’s fun, it isn’t the same.In the last times we had pets, a while ago, we spent three to four years with older animals, a marvelous Olde English Sheepdog called Bentley, a Jack Russell Terrier named Timothy, and a gray shorthair cat, Max.We loved all three and had them, starting with the sheepdog, a total of 18 years.Those final years were both sweet and difficult, holding on to something that wasn’t really there anymore, finding ways to fill both the pets’ needs along with our own.These animals gave much to our family, helped our children grow into adults with compassion and responsibility for living things, gave us many moments of laughter in our lives together, and loved us as we loved them.That last, in itself, is nothing to dismiss.Animals, while needing basic care, offer so much in return—a lick, a wag, a purr—the basic needs of humans, right?I wrote a poem this time to honor all the pets in my life, including those three mentioned above.

This is a sad poem for me but meaningful! I had a dog for 13 years and a cat for 16 and many cats and dogs throughout my childhood. I love animals. I can't bring myself to get any pets now until I retire. I couldn't bare to leave them as I am too busy now. Thanks for sharing! I'm like you, I adopt everyone else's pets for now.

I really enjoyed your poem. It reminded me of a slice that someone did during the March challenge about the shift in caring for his parents, rather than being in the "child" role. It was interesting to think about those cycles in another context.